The Players Championship

The PGA Tour never fails to deliver the top golf experience. This past week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the players did not disappoint. Among those players was career journeyman Kurt Kitayama. Kitayama showed the kind of grit and determination all young professionals aspire to have. Prior to his first career PGA Tour victory, Kitayama found himself playing on every single professional tour world wide, including The Canadian, Japan, China, Korean tours. After traveling around the world and back again Kitayama has finally found himself on the PGA Tour and as of last week a PGA Tour winner. Kurt’s win however did not come easy. Throughout the day Kitayama faced all kinds of adversity including an errant tee shot on the ninth hole that ultimately led to a penalty resulting in a triple bogey for the hole. Kitayama before this triple had a two shot lead and after one hole he found himself one shot behind. After the triple Kitayama made 6 pars in a row leading him to the 17th hole. At this point, he is tied for first place after making birdie on 17 he gained a one shot lead going into the famous 18th hole. Kitayama found himself in a winning position when he reached the 18th green, all he had to do was two putt for par and he would be champion. After an incredible first putt, Kitayama tapped in for par and claimed his first victory. I think players like Kurt winning is monumental for the continued growth of golf. A guy like that who has grinded and worked his way up through the ranks finally getting that elusive win is everything young golfers aspire to do. Keep a continued eye on Kurt Kitayama. He's going to be a name that won’t go away anytime soon. 

Although Kitayama's victory was astounding, his win wasn’t the news that shocked the golf community. As of last week, the PGA Tour has made drastic changes to the schedule. A few of the largest changes are limited events with guaranteed money and will not have a cut after 36 holes. Now a few things first, why? Why is the PGA Tour completely copying what LIV is doing? This is the same PGA Tour that spoke ill of these practices. At this point, I'm sure most if not all golf fans are wildly confused right about now. The biggest question that remains to be answered is “will these events be granted world ranking points?” Now as we know in order to earn points in an event that event needs to have a cut. What’s stopping the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) from not granting points in these events. At this point who knows what will happen next, but all we know right now is the PGA Tour is going to continue to implement drastic, sudden changes to professional golf. 

While the looming ramifications of LIV continue to daunt the PGA Tour, all eyes are on the tour’s flagship event, The Players Championship. The Player’s has been and always will be what golf fans know it as ‘The fifth major.” It coined that nickname because it has one of the highest ranked fields throughout the whole season mirroring that of major championship fields. However a major hit to that field this year is last year’s champion Cam Smith, who moved over to LIV at the end of last season. Despite missing Cam, the field is pretty spectacular. Of those top players include Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Max Homa, and Scottie Scheffler. The field coupled with the legendary TPC Sawgrass this year’s Player’s Championship is going to be electrifying. Despite this intense field, the Sawgrass shows its teeth in various ways. The obvious one is the weather. The wind is known to blow upwards to 25-30 mph. High winds coupled with tight, tree line fairways will require precise tee shots. The real fun begins on the 17th. The iconic island green at TPC Sawgrass is one known by all. Coming in at a whopping 137 yards this is one of the toughest holes on the course. Between the small multi tiered green, winds, and a ton of water, this is one of the most daunting tee shots among par 3’s on tour. On that hole last year over the course of 423 tee shots on the 17th hole over the course of four rounds, 57 balls found the water. That equals out to be every one in every seven players hitting a ball into the water. It’s safe to say that even the best players in the world still get nervous. Fans come from far in wide to see tournaments won or lost on the 17th tee. (Mike)

    My picks last week were in it until the very end. Hatton and Scheffler just really play well at The Arnold Palmer. It was a shame Rickie stumbled on the weekend, but time to pick a winner for this week! I really like Patrick Cantlay to win this week. He has been playing a lot better as of late and certainly is trending toward a win. I love how every event on The Tour seems just a bit bigger than the last one. This makes it impossible to stay away from the big names when it comes to picking a winner. As for players trending in the right direction, Jason Day is a great pick for a dark horse this week. He has recently entered the world’s top 50 for the first time in ages. I really like him to win at Augusta, but he seems destined for a top ten this week at The Players.

    I really wish The Tour would come out and speak to the changes they are making rather than hiding behind the Tour spokesman, Rory Mcllroy. I love Rory, but he should not be expected to be the only one answering these questions while Jay Monahan can sit back and avoid the bright lights. If you are going to continue to make changes that do not seem to benefit the fans, at least be strong enough to stand up and take some criticism. (Tyler)